There is the sense that you were holding nothing back. I just wanted to get into the heart and soul of the music, literally, and I guess the best way to describe it, what actors call method acting, it was kind of like my way of method singing in a way. I would have these tearsheets and pictures of even Louis Armstrong and Coltrane and Miles Davis and all these amazing jazz musicians. I would surround myself also with old imagery of your Billie Holidays, and your Pearl Baileys and people like that. I wanted to put on my red lipstick and do up my blonde hair sometimes, just to get into that saucy mode or that old Hollywood glam kind of effect. Everytime I went to record a song or what not, to really get into the mode and character of what these songs were conveying: the poppy, pin-up imagery sometimes or the burlesque place that we’re taking a song like “Naughty Boy,” to that Mae West place. It definitely was a preparation for me, because… I take this seriously, I really do. We started seeing photos of you close to a year and a half ago, where you already seemed to be in this image: platinum hair, red lipstick. I’m most proud of things like “I’ve Got Trouble,” where we really used old vintage microphones covered them up with old ratty cloths to get that muffled old crackly sound. We just really went in there and recreated ourselves to get this old throwback sound. There’s no beat machines, no samples whatsoever. We just went from scratch, from ground up. After I’d given Linda these CDs, she really was the one that really, really listened to what I was trying to say. He was one of the people that I reached out to. I didn’t want to do anything that would remotely sound recognizable. I sent it out to producers that I thought might be able to get into this headspace with me because I didn’t want another old sample that’s totally recognizable and let’s throw a beat over it - I wanted to get obscure pieces of music and get people who would really, really use their imaginations in reinventing the wheel.
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I compiled a two-disc CD, a compilation of 30 or more soul-inspired songs that are throwbacks to more current day, modern, with a twist, of all the kind of songs that have influenced me in some level in a soul, blues and jazz-driven way.
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Whenever I first got this vision, I set out for the producers first.
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You know, I thought the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s were such interesting elements to combine with the feel, look and sound, so it was just very exciting and I wanted the entire label to get on the same page with me and be in for this crazy ride that I wanted to go on with the record. My vision for this record was to go back to old blues, jazz and soul music, the music that I love and am inspired by wholeheartedly, combine with the visuals of some of the best era, I think, with the throwback to old Hollywood glam-that kind of retro, pin-up style of sexuality. In February, you called your label team together and told them your vision for this album.